Music Review: Everett a lone wolf on Eels latest

In this CD cover image released by Vagrant Records, the latest by Eels, "Hombre Lobo," is shown. (AP Photo/Vagrant)

/ AP

In this CD cover image released by Vagrant Records, the latest by Eels, "Hombre Lobo," is shown. (AP Photo/Vagrant)

In this CD cover image released by Vagrant Records, the latest by Eels, "Hombre Lobo," is shown. (AP Photo/Vagrant) (/ AP)

CHRIS TALBOTT, The Associated Press

Eels, "Hombre Lobo" (Vagrant)

Life hasn't gotten much better for the "Dog Faced Boy."

On his 2002 release, "Souljacker," Eels braintrust Mark Oliver Everett sings about how "life ain't pretty for a dog-faced boy."

Seven years later the "Dog Faced Boy" has grown into a lovelorn "Hombre Lobo," a lonely werewolf looking for an alpha female.

That's the concept behind Everett's seventh studio album, a sad howl in the dark for one or rock 'n' roll's most gifted and underappreciated artists.

His music can rend the heart or shake the rafters as he shifts styles effortlessly. Over the four years since his last release, Everett often caught himself thinking about what life would be like for the bullied Dog Faced Boy after he grew up.

Clearly autobiographical – Everett sports an awesome beard that covers much of his face – the 12 songs on "Hombre Lobo" track the werewolf as he searches fruitlessly for love – much like Everett has done from potential mates and the public for much of his adult life.

In "That Look You Give That Guy," he longs for the kind of love given to another man. In "Lilac Breeze," the smell of an uninterested woman's perfume sends him daydreaming. And in "The Longing," he sings, "Today becomes a quest not to think about her and all that she brings."

Like much of E's work, the album is complicated. It's both sad and uplifting, dark and humorous, and always worth picking up.

CHECK THIS TRACK OUT: There are two gems here: "Fresh Blood" and "Tremendous Dynamite." E's at his most fierce in these songs, the album's two rip-roaring guitar-driven tracks. While much of the album is relentlessly sad, E reminds us he has claws as he gets the blood flowing with these ominous, effects-laden rockers.